Road to Georgia: A Walking Dead Story
by iamdecaptiannow
Summary: Eric and his little brother, Andre, find themselves caught up in a world where the dead come back to life and terrorize the living. Eric discovers that some distant family members have set up shelter in the state of Georgia. It's now up to Eric to get both himself and Andre across state lines, from Missouri to Georgia, and, hopefully, safety with his family.
1. Family Problems

Chapter 1

15 minutes. No, 30 minutes. Maybe even an hour. The anxious high school senior couldnt figure out how much time had passed since class started. There was no clock in the room, and there were no electronics allowed during class, so there was no way to keep track.

"Eric, since you seem to be paying so much attention, why dont you come up and do the next problem on the board for everyone?"

His math teacher, Mrs. Pikes, called him out for staring off into space for too long. She loved to do that.

"Well, see, I hurt my writing hand pretty bad last night, or else I would. Sorry."

"Hurt it doing what, jacking off too much?" Someone called from the other side of the room. The class burst into laughter. Mrs. Pikes shot a glare at him, then said, "Office. Now."

The kid got up out of his desk and left. "Worth it," he murmured as he shut the door behind him.

Mrs. Pikes then looked back to Eric. "Now, Eric, if you could please -" the bell cut her off before she could finish. 'Yes!' Eric thought to himself. "Make sure you read chapter 7 tonight and answer the questions. Have a good day."

Eric had all his things in his backpack and was getting ready to leave until he heard, "Mr. Brandson, may I speak with you a moment?"

Eric rolled his eyes before turning around to walk to her desk. "Eric, this whole zoning off thing has really started to become a pattern with you. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just have better things to think about I guess."

"Oh really? You have better things to think about then the material for the class you need to pass in order to graduate next month? You're sitting at a 56 in here. Do I need to call your parents again?"

Eric's eyes went wide. "No, no, no! Dont call them."

Mrs. Pikes leaned back in her desk chair. "Then you had best start paying more attention. You better have the homework done and ready to go by tomorrow or I will have to make some phone calls."

Eric looked down to the floor, at his shoes. "Yes, Mrs. Pikes."

She then waved him out the door, and Eric left.

Thankfully, it was his last class for the day. Eric walked down the hallway to the double doors that led to the school parking lot.

"Ah shit... where did I park?" He looked around a bit before finally seeing his vehicle, a 98 Lincoln continental. It wasnt the best vehicle in the world, but it did what he needed it to do, and that was fine for him. He threw his backpack into the backseat, got into the car, and drove off.

Eric pulled in front of the elementary school, in front of the 4th grade section. The elementary school got done at 3:15, 15 minutes after his school got done. He looked around until he saw his little brother, and rolled down the window. "Andre! Let's go!" Eric shouted.

Andre waved goodbye to a few of his friends, then ran to Eric's car. " Hi Eric" he said as he entered the car.

"Hey little dude." Eric said. 'Little dude' is what Eric always called Andre. Whenever Eric was in a good mood with him, that is. "How was school?"

"It was fun! Our P.E. teacher had us play dodgeball, and I got so many people out! It was so much fun! How was your school Eric?" Andre said.

"Eh, it was school."

He drove them both back to their house, and parked the car in the driveway. They both went inside. Eric plopped himself down on the couch in the living room, in front of the TV. Andre went to the dining room table, which was right next to the living room, and began drawing his little doodles he did after school.

"Hey, Eric?" Andre asked.

"Yeah?"

"How come you and mom got mad at each other last night?"

Eric thought back to the night before. He and his mom got into a shouting match in his room. Not only was Eric failing 3 of his classes that he needed in order to graduate on time, but his mom had also found a pack of cigarettes in his car. His mom disapproved of nicotine and forbid anyone in her household from using it.

Eric got mad when she confronted him. He's 18, and next month he'd be out of the house, hopefully somewhere that wasn't Warrensburg, Missouri, which was where he lived, and whether he had his diploma or not. Then he would be able to do whatever he wanted, without being under her thumb all the time. The thought put a smile on his face. A world where his parents couldn't tell him what to do.

"She just doesnt understand me, or the things I do very well. And when I do something she doesnt understand, she gets mad and shouts. Like she did last night."

Andre nodded, but he still had a slightly confused expression on his face.

"Look, next month, when I'm graduated and done with school, I'll move out. Then you wont ever have to hear me and mom shout again. Sound good?"

Andre nodded, but again, with that same confused look on his face.

"But if you're gone, who's gonna pick me up from school? And who will draw with me? And who will kill the spiders in my room when they crawl in my bed?" He asked.

"I'm sure mom could do all that stuff. Hell, I bet soon you'll be walking home and killing your own spiders."

Andre nodded once again, but this time, with a more sad expression.

"Hey, dont worry little dude. You'll still see me after I leave. I just wont be in your hair that much."

Eric roughed up Andre's hair as he said the last part. Andre playfully swatted it away and looked up at Eric with a smile. "Okay, Eric."

3 hours passed after that. Eric was still on the living room couch. He was texting people on his phone while the TV played in the background. Andre was sitting on the floor next to the couch. He had his little tablet in his hands and was watching videos on the internet.

They both heard the door creak open, and their mom, Susan, walked through. She closed the door behind her, and looked at Andre.

"Hi sweetie," she said with a bright face.

Then she turned to Eric. The expression on her face lowered and became more of an angry one. She walked past the living room and into the kitchen. Eric rolled his eyes and went back to his phone.

Andre got up and ran to his mom in the kitchen. "Hi mom! Look what I drew!"

He handed her the piece of paper, and she took it. "Aw, how nice. I'll keep it forever." She then took the paper and stuck it to the fridge using a magnet.

"Andre, why dont you go to your room for a little while? I'll call you back out when dinner is ready okay?"

"Okay!" He exclaimed, before running off.

His mom then went into the living room and began talking to Eric.

"Did you throw them away?"

"What?"

"Did you fucking throw them away, like I asked you to?"

"Yes."

"And your teachers? You talked to them?"

'My god, does she ever shut up?' Eric thought to himself.

"No, I didnt."

"Why not?"

"I forgot."

"Well you had best stop forgetting if you wanna graduate next month. Times gonna fly by before you know it, and you're gonna regret it if you dont start getting your shit together now." She explained.

"Mom, can you ever just let my problems be my problems? I'm 18, I can handle my own shi-"

"Watch your mouth. Only the people who pay bills in this house can say those words."

"I can look after myself, okay? I dont need you on my case all the time."

"Apparently, you do. You barely give a crap about anything anymore, so I'm gonna do it for you until you are out from under my roof. Once you're gone, you can fuck up all you want."

Eric just looked up at her with an annoyed expression, as if trying to tell her he doesnt want to talk anymore. She sighed.

"Honey, I love you okay? I just want to see you succeed. I know you hate me right now, but you'll thank me later on."

"Yeah, okay, great. Got it."

Eric's mom just looked at him with a disappointed expression for a few seconds, then went back into the kitchen.

An hour had passed. Eric, Andre, and Susan were all sat at the table for dinner. Eric's dad, Greg, was away on a business trip in Florida, for the company the family owned. Susan would fly out and join him the next day.

"So, Eric, while I'm gone, make sure you keep the house clean. Make sure Andre takes a shower once a day. There's meat in the freezer you can thaw and cook for the weekend. Your father and I will be back Monday."

Eric nodded, eating more of the noodles from his spaghetti.

"And don't bring that girl over here while I'm away. I'm sure she's a nice person, but I dont trust her in my house with you when I'm not in it."

Eric rolled his eyes. "I wont, mom."

She turned her head to Andre. "You be a good boy when I'm gone. If I get a good report from your brother, maybe we can talk about getting that new video game console you've been wanting."

Andre's eyes lit up with excitement. "Really?"

"Yes, but ONLY if your brother tells me you were good."

Andre looked at Eric. "I'll be good, I'll be good! I promise!"

Eric smiled at him. "I'm sure you will, little dude."

Susan smiled at them, then got up from her chair. "Put the dishes in the sink. After I wash them I'm going to go to bed." Eric and Andre put their plates in the sink, then went into the living room and turned the TV on.

"I'll be gone super early in the morning, so make sure you get you and your brother up on time for school, okay?"

"Yeah, I will. Dont worry."

Once Susan was done washing the dishes, she yawned. "I'm off to bed. I'll see you boys Monday."

"Goodnight, mom." Both Eric and Andre said in unison.

They didnt know it yet, but that was the last time they would ever see their mom again. They had no idea, the next day, their lives would change forever.


	2. First Contact

Eric opened his eyes, and immediately closed them and threw his arms up, to protect his vision from the sheer amount of light going through his window.

Wait a second.

It's never this bright out at 6:30, when he gets up. He looks at his alarm clock and -

"HOLY SHIT!" he immediately jumped out of bed and started throwing clothes on. Its 8:17. He's almost 20 minutes late to school. That, he doesnt care about. However, he was also supposed to take Andre to school. Andre starts school at 7:45, which would make him almost 40 minutes late.

After he's done hurriedly throwing clothes on, he rushes to Andre's room.

"Wake up little dude! We gotta get you to school!" He then rushes to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair. Once he and Andre were both done getting ready, he rushed them out the door.

"Skip breakfast, Andre, we'll eat once we get back."

As soon as they were both in Eric's car, Eric started the engine and took off from the house.

A little ways down the road, Andre began to try and talk. "Uh Eric? How come -"

"Not now, little dude."

"But, Eric, there's no other cars -"

"I said not now! Let me concentrate here!" Eric replied. Once he pulled into Andre's elementary he rushed Andre out of the car. "Go on, man, get to class. I'll pick you up after school!"

As soon as Andre had his things, Eric took off again. He was now almost 30 minutes late, although that didnt really bother him.

On his way to school, he finally picked up on what Andre had been trying to tell him. There were no other cars on the road. 'Its just because all the parents got their kids to school by now,' he thought to himself.

But, surely there still wouldve been at least a few other cars, going places, right? He was the only one driving on any of the streets around him, as far as he could see on the streets he was driving on. All the other cars he saw were in driveways, or next to houses on the streets, parked and shut off. But there were no other running cars that he knew of around.

This struck Eric as odd. He lived in a pretty busy neighborhood, mostly full of working people. There should be people going to work around this time. He decided to brush it off for now and get to school.

When he got to the school, things began to REALLY seem off. Where were all the student's cars? He noticed most of the faculty spots were being used and some of the students spots were filled, but the parking lot is usually much more filled than this.

'More parking options for me, I guess' he thought, and pulled into a spot close to the entrance. He went into the back seat of his car, grabbed his bag, and walked towards the front doors.

He went inside. The halls were silent. Too silent. When he was late to school in the past, the halls would be empty, but he would still be able to hear teachers talking from their rooms, or people in the front office doing things, or maybe a straggler who had to use the bathroom leaving the class.

Right now, he couldnt hear anything. And even more strange, didnt see anybody. He walked slowly down the hall towards his first period, and snuck peeks in the classrooms.

No one to be found. Or heard. He was starting to get freaked out. No sign of life on the way to Andre's school, nothing to be seen on the road here, and nobody is around inside the school, either. What was this? Was there a day off today and he didn't get the memo? Today wasnt any special day, at least not as far as he knew.

"Hello? Anybody here?" He called out.

He stood in the corridor and waited for a few seconds. Nothing but dead silence. Eric was really starting to get scared. 'Maybe there was an assembly in the gym and I was late for the announcement?' He thought to himself.

He walked outside using the door at the end of the corridor and walked towards the building where the gym was. He walked inside the building. Nobody. Eric had no clue what to think, or do.

They've got to be somewhere, they have to be somewhere. He was probably just overthinking it. A whole school of students couldnt have just disappeared. He walked back outside and started for the courtyard of the school.

He got to the edge and looked around. He saw someone. Two people at the bottom of the steps, next to some hedges. 'Holy crap, finally. Maybe they know where everyone is.'

He began walking down the steps to go and talk to the people at the bottom, but stopped when he noticed something off about the pair.

One person was lying on the ground, totally still. The other person was on their knees, hunched over the person on the ground, doing... something to them. The hunched person had his back to Eric, so he couldnt really see what was happening. Eric began to walk down the steps again, very slowly.

"Yo, do you know what's going on? I haven't seen anyone else around here. Do you know where all the kids went?" No response. He or she just kept doing whatever they were doing to the person on the ground.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Eric said, a bit louder this time. This got the person's attention. They stopped messing with the person on the ground and stood up. They began to turn around.

"Look I'm sorry man, can you just tell me what-" he stopped when he looked at the face of what was standing in front of him.

The person had greenish, brownish, rotten skin. Long grey hair that reached the shoulders. Grey, soulless eyes, that stared Eric down. Their jaw hung open, and was filled with... blood?

Eric looked down at the person it was hunched over before. The person on the ground had the chest and stomach completely ripped open, their innards hanging out and blood oozing everywhere. Eric looked at the face, and almost immediately recognized who the person was. Mrs. Pikes.

Eric just stood in shock, not sure what to say or do. The thing that was eating Mrs. Pikes began to do a deformed limp walk towards Eric. Eric began to slowly back away with his hands up.

"Look, I dont know who, or-or what you are, but-but please..." the thing began to walk much faster towards Eric. Eric turned around and ran up the stairs, probably the fastest he'd ever ran in his life. He ran back into the main building of the school.

"Help! Help! There's a weird monster thing outside in the courtyard! It ate Mrs. Pikes! Help! Someone!" His cries for help were met with silence. He stood in the school corridor, trying to catch his breath. He then heard movement from one of the classrooms. Someone walked out from one of the rooms.

"Oh thank god! Please help, there's-" Eric took a look at what came out from the room. It was a teacher, his 3rd period one. Except he was different. He had the same appearance as the thing from outside did. Part of his neck was missing, like someone had cut it off. Or bit it off.

Eric immediately turned around and ran. A bunch of those things started coming out from classrooms. He just kept running. He had never ran so fast, for so long in his life. He rushed out the building and into the parking lot. He spotted his car off in the distance.

"Keys. Where the fuck are my keys!?" He frantically searched for them, in his pockets. He couldnt find them. He must've dropped them. He only processed the thought for a split second before being pushed to the ground by something behind him.

He looked up to see it was another one of those ugly monster things from the school. He couldnt get up, or else the thing would have too much of a window to bite him like the other people in the school.

He backed away on his hands and feet as fast as he could. "What the hell ARE you! Get away from me!" He shouted. The monster got closer and closer, and finally it fell on him.

The freakish thing opened its mouth to tried and bite Eric, but Eric managed to catch the head before it made contact with him. The thing then brought its arms up to try and swat Eric's away. Eric struggled with the thing for what felt like forever. He didnt know how much longer he had until his strength went away. Or until another one showed up to finish the job. Would he die today? Would he end up being ripped apart and eaten like Mrs. Pikes was?

Just when he felt like he couldn't keep fighting the thing off much longer, he heard a loud BANG! And the thing fell off of him, lifeless. He looked to his right to see a person standing there, holding up a handgun with the barrel pointed at Eric's attacker. Eric recognized him.

"Markus?"

"Shit man, I thought there was no one else. I'm so glad to see you!" Markus said. He helped Eric to his feet and they embraced. When they pulled away, Eric asked, "do you have any idea what the fuck is going on here? Where is everybody?"

Markus was very dark-skinned, and had a flat top. He was a grade below Eric, and played basketball.

"I have no clue. I went home last night and both my parents were one of those things that you saw in there. And then all of the sudden everyone starts looking like that. I thought I was the last person on earth."

Eric was surprised by what he said.

"This has been going on since last night? I had no idea anything was happening until this morning. Everyone just up and vanished."

"Not vanished." Markus said. "If they get you, you turn into one of them," he said, pointing at the thing on the ground. "I dont know how it works, or why, but I've seen it happen. My -" he choked up for a second.

"My sister was bit by one. I tried cleaning the wound up and patching it, but a few minutes later, she had become one of them. I had to-" he choked up again.

Eric put a hand on his shoulder. "You dont gotta say anymore. I'm real sorry."

Markus wiped his eyes. "Thanks man. Fuck, I'm not sure what to do. These things are everywhere."

Suddenly, Eric was hit with a thought.

"Andre! He's still at school! What if those things are there, too!"

Markus knew who Andre was, because Eric's mom used to pay Markus to babysit Andre when no one else was in the house. Markus' eyes went wide.

"Shit, that dude is in trouble. They're definitely there, if they were here."

"We have to go get him! Now!"

"Alright, c'mon, let's go!" They both got into Markus' truck and got in. Markus started the truck and pulled them out onto the road.

Oh no, what if those monster things were at Andre's school? What if Andre had been running from them this whole time? What if they were already too late?

No. He can't be. Andre is smart, he's good at figuring things out. Hopefully we would find a way to fend them off.

'Hang in there, little dude. I'm coming.'


	3. Dangerous Rescue

Eric could barely keep still in the passenger seat of Markus' truck. His little brother was all by himself in the middle of an area where more of those monster things most likely were. He must be so scared, so alone, so afraid.

If he's still alive.

"God dammit man, can't this thing go any faster?" Eric asked.

"Dude, we're going 75 right now!"

Markus sped down the street. He wasn't concerned about being pulled over, someone could die if they didnt get to the school in time. Plus, who knows if there were any cops around anymore?

"So, you've been seeing these things since last night? Do you have any idea how many there are? If they're just here in town, or in more places?"

"I don't know much of shit, except that these bastards are everywhere and they got my family."

Markus was silent for a few seconds, then spoke again.

"I've got a feeling they might be in other places too. This morning, all the phone lines went down. My cell phone wasnt making any calls, anywhere. I tried to use the house phone, but the electricity went down too. I walk outside and there's a million of those things outside, everywhere."

"You think the the government might send the army? Or the national guard, or fuckin' something to deal with this?"

"I don't know, I hope so. There's no way they wouldn't know about this by now. This shit has to be in other places too. Of all the places something like this could go, why would it only choose Warrensburg, Missouri, of all places?"

Eric thought on the question for a second. He had a point, his hometown was a very random place for a biological disease to be terrorizing.

"But if whatever is causing this is in other places too.. does that mean there's nowhere safe for us to go?"

Markus just shrugged slowly, and continued to drive. Finally, they reached the elementary school. Markus parked the truck into the roundabout that was used pick up kids and drop them off, and parked the truck.

"Alright, c'mon, he's gotta be in there somewhere." Eric said, leaving the truck.

"Hold up, Eric!"

Eric stopped and turned around. Markus handed him a silver baseball bat.

"I'd give you a gun, but this was the only pistol my dad had. But you can use my lucky bat for now."

"Lucky bat?" Eric asked.

Markus smiled at him. "Hit a home run every time."

They both turned towards the entrance of the school and walked inside.

Walking inside, everything was silent. Nothing was to be heard through the long, maze-like corridors of the school. Eric had already learned that didn't mean there wasn't danger around.

Eric spoke in a low whisper. "Whenever I tried calling out for help in the hallway at our school, all it did was just bring more of them into the hallway."

Markus nodded. "I'm pretty sure they're attracted by sounds. I noticed after I shot the one that was on you, groups of them were coming to the parking lot. They're mindset is probably something along the lines of, 'food is where the noise is.'"

"And we're the food."

Markus nodded again.

Eric thought for a moment. "Alright, let's try and keep this quiet. Walk like you're on thin ice. We find Andre, we get out. Don't use that gun unless you have to."

Markus nodded. Eric had his bat up and ready while Markus was semi crouched behind him, with his pistol drawn. They moved as quickly but as quietly as they could through the halls. Some of the doors were left wide open, others had desks thrown in front of them to keep someone, or something, out.

"Shit, Andre, where are you?"

"I don't hear nothin' here. Maybe he ran somewhere else?"

"C'mon man just stay with me here. He could be-"

Eric's sentence was interrupted by a large crash, followed by a scream, coming from a hallway towards the other side of the school.

"Did you hear that?" Markus asked.

"Yeah. Cmon, let's go!"

They both began to run towards the sound. As they got closer, they could start to hear the inhuman groaning noise that the creatures who had invaded their hometown made.

When they turned the corner, they found out the source of the noise was a closet. Or rather someone inside of it. The person inside of the closet was screaming non-stop, as the undead monsters outside were beating on the door, huddled around the entryway to the closet. There had to be at least 15 of them.

"Eric, man we can't risk this. There's too many of them."

"That could be Andre. I'm not leaving my brother to be freak food."

Markus thought on what Eric said. He sighed. "Alright, fine. What do we do."

"We have to get them away from the door."

Eric thought for a second. Then he had an idea.

"They're attracted by noise right?"

"...yeah."

"Then we just have to make more noise than the person inside the closet."

Markus got a concerned look on his face.

"I don't like where this is going."

"I'll hide behind that desk over there." Eric pointed at a desk that had been pushed into the hallway. "You stand over there, and start making racket, do whatever you have to. Draw them away from the door, then run into the cafeteria over there. Once they're away from the door, I'll go get the person inside the closet. Then you circle around these things, we meet back at the truck."

"Oh, so I'm just bait? I dont get a choice?"

Eric looked at him. "Cmon mister basketball star, I thought you were the fastest motherfucker on the team?"

"Hey, just because people SAID I said that doesnt mean I actually said that."

Eric rolled his eyes. "Can you just fucking help me here? My little brother could be in there, and who knows how many more of those fuckers are out there are trying to find us and eat us. We're wasting time."

"Alright, fine. You get in place and I'll do my thing."

Eric ran to the desk and hid behind it. Markus looked around for a few seconds, trying to find a way to distract the freaks away from the door. Then he pulled his gun. He shot it at the ceiling twice.

"Hey assholes, why dont you pick on someone who can fight back?"

"What the hell are you doing?!" Eric asked.

"You told me to attract them to me!"

"Yeah, the ones in front of the door, not every single one in the damn building!"

The freaks in front of the door were already moving towards Markus.

"Just go get whoever's in there. I'll see you at the truck!"

Eric nodded. He waited until the freaks were past the desk, following Markus' shouts while he led them away from the door. When they were a safe distance away, Eric ran for the closet. 'Please be Andre, please be Andre, please be Andre!' He thought. He went and opened the door to, sure enough, see his little brother cowered in the back of the closet.

"Eric!"

Andre ran to him and they embraced.

"Hey little dude. Man, I'm glad to see you in one piece. Did any of those things touch you, or bite you?"

Andre shook his head. "They tried to grab me, but I ran in here."

"That's good. I knew you were smart enough to get away. Come on, our ride is waiting for us out front."

Eric led Andre back through the winding maze of hallways of the school. Eventually, they found the front door.

"You see that truck parked there? That's ours."

"So cool!"

Eric and Andre made a break for the truck after they ran out the door. Andre got into the back seat with Eric's help, then Eric got into the passenger seat.

"Shit. Markus isnt back." He turned around to face Andre. "We're gonna have to wait here for a little bit."

"Eric, what's going on? What are those things? Why do they keep chasing us?"

"I don't know. I don't know what's going on buddy, but we're going to do everything we can to get through it, okay?"

Andre nodded and looked down at the floorboard.

Eric looked toward the door on the school, it had just opened. Markus walked out. Eric was relieved, until he got a closer look at him.

Markus was walking different. Walking strangely. He had his arms half up, his fingers were curled. His skin was green mixed with his dark skin. His eyes were the same grey, soulless eyes the freaks had. And he had huge bites in his right arm and his neck.

"Oh no... shit. Not him man. No!"

But that wasn't their only problem. The keys were still with Markus, on his now dead body. They had no way to turn the truck on.

A larger group of freaks were behind Markus, following him outside. Large groups of the monsters were coming from all over the place, closing in on Eric's location, possibly attracted by the gunshots of Markus' pistol.

There were freaks on all sides of the truck. Eric and Andre were trapped, with no way out.


	4. The Road Begins

Eric searched frantically around the truck for something, anything they could use. He looked up at the ceiling. There was a sun roof in the ceiling of the truck. It was kinda small, but it was their only option.

"Andre, the sun roof! Now!"

Eric opened the the slide on the roof. It was definitely big enough for Andre to slide out of, but Eric questioned whether he could make it on top of the truck. He knew he had to try, or else he wouldn't make it. Once Andre had crawled out, he grabbed the roof and began to climb out himself.

Eric got his head through the opening in the ceiling. He pulled himself up a bit more, but got stuck. His shoulders seemed to be too wide for the opening. He struggled with it a bit, but to no avail.

Andre then got on his knees, and grabbed Eric by his shirt. He began to try and pull Eric up.

"Hurry Eric, use your legs!"

Eric began to push down on the seat he was standing on with his feet while Andre pulled him up. He could feel himself squeezing through the opening, little bit by little bit, going faster as they pulled him further up. Finally, all of Eric's upper body made it through the sun roof, and he was able to get all the way on top of the truck.

He put a hand on Andre's shoulder. "Thanks little dude."

He looked down at the mass of freaks that had surrounded the truck, and were desperately reaching up to grab them. He looked back at Markus.

"Dammit man. If I had known... I never would've..."

Eric couldn't help but feel guilty for what had happened. It was his plan. His idea for Markus to be bait for the freaks. 'That should be me down there. Not you' Eric thought. At least Markus could be with his family, his sister again. And he didnt have to deal with all the freakish stuff going on.

"We've gotta find a way out of here. Any suggestions?" Eric asked Andre.

Andre didn't answer his question. Just stared down at the horse of freaks with wide eyes filled with horror. "Who ARE they? What do they want?"

"Nothing good." Eric answered.

Eric then saw the small red toolbox in the corner of the truck bed. Eric wondered if he could get to it without getting grabbed. Maybe there was something in it he could use as a weapon?

"Andre, stay here. I'm gonna try and get to the toolbox on other side of the bed. If I get grabbed, do not come after me. I dont want you getting hurt."

Andre nodded. Eric climbed down into the bed of the truck, doing his best to avoid any rotten arms trying to grab at his clothes. He stayed low, ducking and dodging as needed while he made his way towards the toolbox. When he finally managed to grab it, he started to make his way back when he felt a hand grab his shirt.

"Shit!" He felt himself being pulled back, he did everything he could in his power to fight it. As we was fighting against his attackers, he saw Andre out of the corner of his vision jump down into the bed and run toward him.

"No! Andre, stay away!" Andre ran over with what looked to be Markus' bat, and began swinging at the arms that were grabbed onto Eric. It took a few good hits, but Eric finally managed to break free. He picked up Andre and ran back to the top of the truck, where the arms couldnt reach them.

"Andre, why the hell would you do that? I told you to stay put."

"You were in trouble. I wanted save you, like how you saved me."

Eric thought on his words for a moment. The he smiled, and put his hand on Andre's head.

"We're brothers. We look out for each other. But under no circumstances are you to get yourself killed for me, okay? My job as your older sibling is to make sure you're safe, and I'll do whatever I have to do to make that happen. From now on, you don't pull anything like that again, okay?"

Andre looked at him for a few seconds, and then nodded.

"Now, we got to figure out a way off of here. Let's see what was in this box."

Eric pulled the latch on the small box and opened it. There were no weapons or anything they could fend off the freaks that had surrounded them. But maybe, something just as useful.

"Eric, what are those?"

"They're called firecrackers. I forgot how much of a firework fan Markus was. You remember last year on the 4th of July how you heard all those popping noises in front of the house, and mom got really mad at me? It's because I set one of these off."

"Can those help us?"

"Maybe, if we use them right. Let's see here..."

Luckily, Markus had also left a box of matches in the box as well.

"I'm gonna light these and throw them over there. When they walk away, I need you to stay close to me, and run as fast as you can, okay?"

Andre nodded.

Eric took the lighter from the box, hit the button on it a couple times until a small flame appeared. He held the flame to the fuse on the firecrackers, and the fuse caught. As soon as the fuse was sparked, he threw the firecrackers in a field next to the parking lot.

"Get ready Andre, as soon as they walk away, we're running."

This was the only firecracker in the box, so they only had one chance to do this. The firecrackers began to go off, making loud cracks through the air as they popped. The freaks surrounding the truck turned around, and began walking towards the noise. Some of them didn't acknowledge the firecrackers and were still focused on Eric and Andre, but just enough of them were distracted so that they had a chance to run.

"Now! Let's go!"

Eric and Andre both jumped off the top of the truck, and began running for it. Eric took the longest strides he had ever taken, Andre desperately trying to keep up behind him. Across the street were a row of houses, with small alleyways in between the yards of the houses. Eric decided they could go and hide their for at least a few minutes.

Once Eric reached the small dirt walkway behind the houses, he looked around, made sure there were no freaks around, and then leaned on the wooden fence to catch his breath.

"Shit... Andre? Andre, you good?"

Andre was sitting in the dirt, heaving heavy breaths, his face red and sweaty. Andre wasn't fat, but he definitely didn't exercise on a regular basis. He had never run so much before.

"I'm... I'm... I'm hurting..."

"Sorry buddy, but hey, we're safe here for now. But we need to come up with some sort of plan. We can't stay here forever."

Andre managed to calm his breaths down after a few seconds.

"What should we do?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should just go somewhere and wait this whole thing out. I'm sure the national guard will be here to deal with this soon."

"We can't do that! What if mom is in trouble? I want to find mom!"

"Mom..."

Eric hadn't even thought about his mother since all of this started. He didnt really want to think about her, but at the same time he was a bit worried. Where was she? Was she safe, or had she already turned into one of these freaks?

Eric was actually a bit saddened by thought of that happening to his mother. They never had the best relationship, but he would never want to see her dead. Eric found himself kind of agreeing with idea at first, but then he shook his head.

"She probably left on her flight to Florida by now. Remember?"

Andre looked to the ground for a second, then brought up his head.

"We should go to where she works. Maybe she didn't leave, and is still there! Or if she isn't, maybe someone else is there that will know where she is!"

Eric thought about the idea for a moment, and then smiled.

"How is it that you are so much smarter than me and I'm 9 years older than you?" Eric patted the head of his little brother. "Alright, we rest here for a while. Then we head out to find mom's office building."

A few hours had passed. Eric didn't know what time it was. They had been sitting behind the houses hiding from freaks for what felt like forever now. When Eric felt all rested, he walked over to Andre.

"Hey little dude, wake up. We gotta get moving."

Andre looked up to Eric with squinted eyes, still feeling tired. Andre rubbed his eyes, then got on his feet. They both moved to the end of the alleyway leading into the street, which led further into town.

"Stay close to me, Andre."

They got out from behind the houses and started walking briskly towards town. A lot of cars were in random places on the street, some with dented doors and broken windows, some flipped over on their sides for whatever reason, and some had the gas tanks open, most likely from people siphoning the car.

They walked on the sidewalks, doing their best to try and stay at least somewhat out of sight. Who knows how far those things could see for? It began to grow darker as they moved across town.

"Eric, what are we gonna do when it gets dark?"

"I dont know."

"What about when we get hungry?"

"I dont know"

"What about-"

"I dont know, Andre, okay? I just dont know. I wish I had all the answers, but I dont. We'll figure things out okay?"

"Eric..."

Andre had a look of horror as he pointed to something behind Eric.

Eric turned around and was met face to face with a freak. It was close, maybe only a couple feet away, and it took Eric by surprise.

Almost without thinking, Eric swung the bat and hit the freak directly in the side of the head. Once the thing was on the ground, he began to swing the bat down on it's head multiple times.

He had just killed it. This, whatever it was. It used to be human. Did he just kill another person?

All of these things he didn't consider before, because he didn't see the freaks as anything more than just threats to his survival, but now that he actually killed one...

"Eric, are you feeling okay?"

Eric realized he had just been standing there, staring at the corpse for a long enough time for it to be weird.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just... I'm sorry you had to see that, little dude."

Andre nodded.

"Cmon, we need to get moving."

Eric and Andre had moved pretty swiftly for how careful they were trying to be. It took them about an hour and half since they left the alleyway in the neighborhood, but they finally made it to Susan's workplace, a large office building with a small sign hanging on the front that read, "Brandson Co."

Eric and Andre's parents owned this company, which mostly dealt in the manufacturing and shipping of certain products with various stores.

"Come on, I know where mom's office is."

Eric led Andre into the building.

"Hello?" Eric called out. He heard nothing. He scanned the main room, walked up to some of the smaller rooms and looked behind their doors. He didn't seem to find anything.

Eric then led Andre up the flights of stairs to the very top floor. They walked past some cubicles and office rooms until they got to the end of the room, where there was one big office with a sign on the door that read: SUSAN BRANDSON.

Eric slowly opened the door and peeked his head inside. Nothing moving appeared to be around. He opened the door all the way and walked inside. He tried flipping the light switch.

"Damn. No electricity. Markus wasn't lying."

"Is Markus... gone?"

Eric looked down on Andre with sorrowful eyes.

"Sadly, yeah. I think so. But he didn't die in vain. If it wasn't for him, both of us would probably be dead right now."

Andre just kind of nodded, then looked to the floor.

"I'm sorry little dude. I know you liked him."

Andre just kind of shrugged. He went and sat in one of the sofas in the office. Eric decided to leave him alone for now. Eric went to the desk where his mom worked and searched around. It didn't take him long to find something interesting.

He opened the bottom drawer on the desk and found a piece of paper wrapping some odd shape in the center. He unraveled the paper and a device fell from the fold onto the table. Eric picked it up.

"My old MP3! Damn, I haven't seen this in years. What's it doing here?"

He pressed the small button on the front, and the screen lit up. It immediately opened to a "self recording" page, and he saw that a new recording was made just earlier that day. 7:50 AM. Almost half an hour before he woke up that morning. Who would do that?

He decided to play the recording. He immediately heard the voice of his mother.

"Hello? Is this thing on? Oh God... my name is Susan Brandson."

"Is that mom?" Andre asked.

Eric put his finger up to his mouth to quiet him, and he continued listening.

"This recording is intended for my children. I won't be able to tell them what I need to personally, so I have to make this recording, then have one of my workers deliver it to my home."

Eric was confused. She couldn't come home? Why not? Where was she now?

"I dont know if they'll ever hear this. But.. I... I want to try. I have to try. In the slim chance they might hear this, I have to try. Eric, Andre, listen to me. Something is happening out there. I dont know what, or why, or how bad it is, but something terrible is going on. People are turning into deformed versions of themselves and preying on anything they can get their hands on. But there is hope. It's a long shot, but there is hope."

Andre looked like he was even intently listening from where he was sitting in the room.

"Verna. Your Aunt Verna. Remember her? From the christmas party last year? She managed to get a hold of me before the phone lines went down, and she told me she was trying to get all of the family members she could reach to come to Georgia, where her family lives. She says she has a safe house, and that most of the family was there already. If you can get there.. we could all go back. To being a family again. I dont know if I can make it but Eric, whatever you have to do, get you and your brother to the coordinates I wrote on the piece of paper your MP3 was folded in."

Eric looked down at the piece of paper. Sure enough, there were XYZ coordinates, and a small drawing of the state of Georgia with a star in the upper left corner. Where Eric assumed aunt Verna lived.

"Now... In case I never see either of you again... I want you both to know that I love you. Both of you, very much. Please, stay close to each other, and stay alive."

The recording ended. Eric found himself with a tear in his eye, and he wiped it away.

"Andre, I-"

"Well ain't this fuckin grand."

Eric was interrupted by a voice he never heard before. He looked up to see three people standing in front of him, all dressed in what seemed like black biker outfits. One of them in the back had his arm wrapped around Andre, hand covering his mouth, and had him in a tight grip with the other.

"No sudden moves. And if you try anything, or disobey what I tell you to do, shrimp gets tossed out the window. Walk to the front of the desk."

Eric, hands up, walked slowly around the desk and stood in front of it.

"Turn around, face the desk."

Eric reluctantly complied.

Eric then felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. One of their visitors hit him with some sort of blunt object. Everything went dark.


	5. Short Detour

Eric sat in his office chair at the desk in his room. He was on his computer, looking through internet videos on his web browser. Eric did this every time he was bored, he would just look through videos on the internet until one caught his eye, and he'd watch it. Then, usually, a string of other videos he found interesting would pop up after that, and he would keep watching until he got sick of it, which wasnt at least for a couple hours. He was on his third video when Susan barged into his room.

"Found these in your car."

She aggressively slammed something on the desk in front of Eric, which immediately caught his attention. He looked down at what she was holding. A pack of cigarettes. Or, rather, his pack of cigarettes.

"Smoking? Really? What the hell has gotten into you?"

Eric just kind of stared down at his knees, and didn't respond.

"I knew those boys you've been running with were no good. That trouble with the police last month, and now this. If I can't trust you to make smart decisions under my roof, how can I trust you to make smart ones out on your own? After you graduate?"

She paused for a second, then spoke again.

"Well, that's if you graduate. While I was at work, Mrs. Pikes gave me an interesting phone call. Wanna know what she told me?"

Eric stared at his computer monitor, at the video he had pulled up. It wasn't playing, it was just what he could look at to avoid making eye contact.

"Not only are you failing her algebra class, but you're also failing your physics and your English class. Care to explain that to me?"

Eric just continued to look at the screen, and not say anything.

"Eric, look at me. Right now. Look at me and say something. Quit acting like I'm not here."

Eric stopped twiddling his thumbs and looked up at her. He spoke for the first time since she entered the room.

"What were you doing in my car?"

Susan just stared down at him, in disbelief.

"That's it? You may not graduate, you're smoking when you know that's strictly against the rules, and that's all you have to say to me?"

"You didn't answer my question. You have no business being in my car."

Susan got angry after he said that. More so than she was before.

"That is NOT your car. I bought that car. That makes it my car, which means my rules apply when using it."

"But what were you doing, just randomly searching my car?"

"I was looking for my phone charger. The one I lent you yesterday and never gave back."

Eric leaned over to the side of the desk. He picked up a corset and unplugged it from the wall. He tossed it at his mother, which just sort of hit her then fell to the ground.

"You know what you are, Eric? Ungrateful. My ungrateful son who doesn't care about anything I've done and doesnt give a shit about anything but himself."

"I really don't understand why you're always on my a-"

"Watch your mouth."

"Why are you always butting into things that don't concern you? These are MY grades, not yours. And whether or not I smoke affects MY health, not yours."

"Because you are MY son, who I wont let be a loser just because he wants to throw his own life away. I'm always bugging you because I care about what kind of man you're gonna be. So does your father."

"Yeah, well, don't. I'm not a little kid anymore, I'm going to make my own decisions. You can't stop that. You want someone to grow into the son you always wanted? Andre is in the other room."

Susan began to yell.

"Eric, you throw those god damn cigarettes away right now!"

Eric just sat in his seat, his eyes reverted back to his monitor.

"Don't you dare ignore me. You're gonna throw those away, and then tomorrow, you're gonna go talk to those teach-"

"Will you FUCK OFF mom?!"

Susan and Eric just kind of stared at each other for a moment. Then, a tear fell from Susan's eye. She wiped it away as she walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Fucking mom. Why does she constantly bother me with her shit?

He wasn't really in a video watching mood anymore. When the arguments ended, he was never in the mood to do anything.

He powered down his computer, turned the lights off, climbed into bed, and tried to go to sleep.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Rise and shine, shithead!"

A blast of water all over Eric immediately woke him up. He tried to move his arms, but they were tied above him, making the rest of his body hang towards the ground.

When his eyes finally adjusted, he looked around. He was in some sort of big warehouse. His arms were tied to a pole that ran behind him. Andre was no where in sight, but 4 men who were dressed the same as their attackers from before were standing in front of him. However, none of these men seemed to be the ones who found them at the office building. They just stood in front of him, arms crossed, staring down at him. Eric decided to break the silence.

"Look, there's gotta be some sort of misunderstanding here. Neither me nor my brother have done anything to you guys. Could you just, maybe, get your boss so we could-"

One of the men in front of him hit him in the side of the head with the butt of a revolver.

"Stop talking. You can speak soon enough once the boss meets ya. Until then, not a word."

"You guys please, can't we just-"

The man hit Eric again.

"Either you're deaf, or just fuckin' stupid. Shut your damn mouth. I'm not allowed to kill you, but there ain't nothing that says I can't break every god damn bone in your body. That's your last warning."

Eric complied, and didn't speak. He just sat there, staring at the ground in front of him, while the men stood in front of him, watching him, occasionally whispering to each other.

After a little while, a door out of sight of Eric could be heard opening, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching.

Soon, someone different came out from behind Eric and stood in front of him. Eric recognized him. It was the same man who had told Eric to get in front of the desk and turn around at the office building. Most likely the one who knocked him out, as well.

"Have a nice nap?"

Eric glared at the man.

"Where's my brother, you sick piece of shit?"

"Oh, my." The man put his hand up to his heart, as if to mockingly show his feelings were hurt.

"You hear that boys? The guy can call names!"

He then sent his foot into Eric's jaw, which made him grunt in pain.

"You won't talk to me like that, or I'm gonna feed you and your fucking brother to the walkers outside, understood?"

Walkers? He called them walkers?

Eric looked up at him, a bit of blood oozing from his mouth. He nodded.

The man standing above him smiled. "Good. Now, I think we both have something the other is interested in. I need you to answer one teeny, tiny little question. Once I get my answer, you get your brother back, and we let you go. Deal?"

Eric nodded again.

"Great. Now first, I know you're Brandson boys. Kiddos of the people who run the corporation."

"How could you possibly-"

Eric looked up to see the man holding his MP3. Along with the note that showed coordinates.

"Eric? Andre? Who else would we have found searching that office?"

The man made sense.

"Just tell me what you want."

"Well, your parents run a business, which must mean they are very rich. Me and my guys are always interested in having a bit of cash. See where I'm going with this?"

Money? The world is ending and these people are after his family's money?

"All you guys want is cash? Have you even SEEN what's going on outside?"

"Yeah, we're well aware. We figured that while the city is in shit, we'd take advantage of the lack of people trying to protect their cash stashes. Then, once everything is back to normal, we'll be set up real good, you follow?"

"How do you know the world is gonna go back to normal?"

"Trust me kid, it will. Give it a few days. Now, stop stalling. And answer my question."

If this guy had been asking him this question under normal circumstances, Eric would have thought he was pretty clever. Eric did know where his parents safe was. But they had worse problems. Things were going to absolute shit outside, Eric was certain he now lived in a world where only survival mattered. Not currency.

"It isn't at the office building."

"No shit. We searched it while you and your brother were taking naps."

"It's at my parent's house. Hidden in the wall behind the headboard."

"That so? Tell me you ain't lyin."

Eric looked at him, straight in the eyes. "I'm not lying."

The man studied Eric's face for a second. Then smiled.

"See? Wasn't so hard now, was it?"

The man then looked to someone behind Eric, and he nodded to them. Eric heard a door open again, followed by little, hurried footsteps. Before he knew it, Andre was in front of him.

"Eric!"

Andre wrapped his arms around him. Eric couldn't hug back, he was still tied up. Eric rested his head against Andre's.

"Glad to see you safe, little dude. They hurt you?"

Andre shook his head. "Not since where mom works."

"Alright, this little reunion is real sweet, but we ain't done yet."

The man walked up to Eric and pulled out a switchblade. He then cut the ropes that had Eric tied up.

"You and 'little dude' here are gonna go for a ride with us. We're gonna go to your house, so you can give us the cash personally. And if you lied, we're just gonna cap both of you. Fair?"

Eric nodded.

"And if you try anything on the way there, I will-"

The man's sentence was interrupted by something grazing his face. Something very fast. A bullet. Which came from.. behind Eric?

Eric looked behind him to see multiple men with guns, who were dressed differently than their captors, which told Eric they weren't on the same side.

"Get down, Andre!" Eric yelled. He pulled Andre down with him while he dropped to the floor. He could hear the gunfire erupting above him.

He opened his eyes to see that the man who had interrogated him had a hand to his face, and was running away. The rest of the men were firing back.

After a few seconds, the rest of the biker group began to turn and run, a couple getting shot in the back as they tried to do so.

Eric felt hands on him, pulling him up, and saw hands on Andre doing the same.

"Fucking let go of him! We didn't do anything to you!"

"Relax! We aren't going to hurt you. We're taking you somewhere safe!" Eric heard a feminine voice say behind him. Eric calmed down a bit, and saw Andre do the same.

They led them to 5 big pickup trucks parked outside of the warehouse. Andre and Eric were sat next to each other in the back seat. It was night time outside. The people with guns climbed into the beds. The trucks began to roll off and drive down the street.

"I know we may not look friendly, but I promise you we are. We were sent by someone to come and find you." The driver said.

"By who?" Eric asked.

"I can't say. But you'll meet him. He said he knew the Eric boy. That one of you?"

Andre pointed at Eric. "Him."

Eric rolled his eyes.

"He said to come find you and to make sure neither of you got hurt. Looks like we showed up just in time."

"A few seconds earlier wouldn't have been so bad either." Eric said.

The driver chuckled to himself.

"You boys look tired. We got a bit of a drive, so you can sleep for now, if you want."

Eric looked over at Andre. He was already passed out. Eric smiled. At least he was still alive.

Eric rested his own head against the window, and began to doze off. The driver was right, it had been a long day. But surely this whole apocalypse thing would blow over in a few days, when some government hired force rides in and kills all the freaks spread through the town, and everyone could go back to their normal lives. Everything would go back to normal eventually.

Right?


	6. Old Friends

Eric slowly opened his eyes and tried to adjust to the light that was pouring through the window of the backseat. He assumed it was early morning and the sun had just come up. They were surrounded by trees on a lonely road.

Eric looked over to Andre. He was rubbing his eyes and trying his best to stay awake.

Eric looked back and stared out the window on his side. He thought a lot on the day before, when so much happened. The bright side, he and his little brother managed to survive their first day in the new world. The bad side? Many people didn't.

All those freaks, those... walkers, they all used to be people once. Each of them had names, lives, daily routines, maybe even families of some kind. But then to be turned into such thinkless, lifeless creatures, who's only concern is what living breathing life is to be eaten next. Did anybody on earth deserve such a fate?

And Markus. Oh god, Markus. Eric never knew him THAT well. But he was still a good friend, who used to look after Andre all the time. And in the end, even gave his life for him. Eric still couldn't help but feel guilty for it. He looked down at the bat Markus had given him. It's kept him from turning into a walker more than once.

Eric looked back at Andre, who was just sort of looking out the window. What if the army, or the national guard, or whoever's job it was to deal with things like this, what if they never came? Would that mean Andre would have to grow up in a world like this? He wouldn't even get to finish his childhood before he has to deal with things like walkers, and crazy psycho groups who kidnap and torture for stupid reasons?

Andre was barely 9. He liked video games, and playing outside. He went to school. He was just an ordinary little boy. What had he done to deserve to live in a world like this?

Eric was deep in his thoughts when the driver began to speak again. "We're just about there."

Eric leaned a bit to the left so he could look through the windshield. The trucks were pulling into a rather large area, enclosed by a chain link fence. Tents were set up all over, as far as one could see within the area, and there was a singular large building towards the back. A sign was attached to fence that read "DEXTER SHELTERS".

The trucks moved slowly as they drove on the small dirt roads that separated the tents into little groups. Eventually they reached the back, and all the trucks parked in front of the large building.

"Alright, let's go. We'll introduce you to the guy running the joint, then we'll show you where you're staying. Provided you choose to stay."

Eric and Andre got out of the truck.

"Follow me." The driver said. He began to walk inside, Eric and Andre on his tail.

Once the driver was inside the building, in a lobby/lounge looking area, he began to speak.

"This is our main base of operations, for now. Everything started so fast, we had to get set up as quickly as we could. Jared Dexter built this place many years ago to serve as shelters for the homeless when they had no where else to go. But when we got here, it was abandoned. So we decided to use it while we re-established ourselves and got back on our feet.

"The people you ran into at Brandson Co. is a group known for taking and robbing people. Although, I'm not sure how much value cash has anymore. They call themselves diablos blancos. Or 'white devils.'"

"And you guys? What do you call yourselves?" Eric asked.

The man shrugged. "People trying to survive, that's who we are. There are people in here from all over the place. Some of them found our hideout here, others we found and pulled off the streets. Like you two.

"But you two were different. One of our scouts came back last night and told us that the Brandson boys had been captured and taken. Guy upstairs got furious, told us to do whatever it took to come and find you. He wanted you out of there real bad."

"Speaking of the guy upstairs," Eric started, "when do I get my introduction?"

"Soon as he gets down here. For now you can take a seat over there." He pointed to an area over in the corner where a group of wooden chairs with red leather cushions were. Eric and Andre wandered over to them and sat down.

Eric began to start thinking again. Who could possibly have gone to the trouble to send 5 trucks full of armed men to make sure Eric and Andre were safe? He rested his head on his hand, which was propped up on the armrest. Mom? Dad? No, they were long gone. Had to be. Maybe a friend? Eric closed his eyes. Before he knew it, he dozed off.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shit. Where was it? It had to be here somewhere.

Eric was on his lunch period right now. His 4th hour class period, English, started in only a couple minutes, and he had a paper due. He was already in deep trouble with his mom as it was, if he didn't turn this paper in, he would be done for.

Eric then heard a feminine voice behind him. "Hey sleepyhead. You didn't text me last night."

Eric turned his head to see Amelia. Amelia was short, about 5'4, she was bit on the pale side, and had blonde hair that reached just past her shoulders. She was extremely pretty, with blue, ocean eyes Eric could stare into for days. Amelia was a girl that Eric had been 'seeing' for some time now. Maybe a few months, but they still weren't officially 'together'.

Eric turned his head back to his locker. "Yeah, sorry. I wasn't really in the mood to text or do anything last night."

"Not in the mood? But you always-" Amelia stopped, realizing what he meant.

"Oh. You and your mom... you and her fought again?"

Eric just shook his head and stayed silent, still rummaging through his locker.

"I'm sorry Eric, really. Maybe you and her need to go get some family counseling?"

"Maybe she just needs to stay the hell out of my business for the last month I have in this damn place."

"Eric, she cares about you. She just wants to see you do good things."

"Not you, with the same damn lecture she tries to give me."

"I'm not trying to lecture you Eric, but just think about this. What kind of example would you be setting for your little brother if you didnt graduate?"

Eric shut his locker, having found the paper he needed for class.

"Andre is gonna grow up and he's gonna smart, and he's gonna be successful, and he's gonna be better than I was. Better than all of us.

Amelia smiled. "See? There's a heart in there, somewhere."

"I don't want him to end up like me. Not one bit."

"The best leaders? They lead by example, Eric. Be an example to your brother. Can you do that?"

Eric looked at the ground a moment, then back up at her.

"I guess I can try."

Amelia smiled at him again. "That's all any of us can do."

Just then, the bell rung. "I gotta run, or I'll be late again. I'll see you later, Eric."

She pecked him on the cheek, and turned around and began to walk away.

"See ya," Eric replied.

He looked down at his paper for a moment, then walked away from his locker and towards his class.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Eric! Eric, wake up."

Eric woke up to Andre shaking him. Eric rubbed his eyes.

"Wha.. what's happening?"

"Nothing. The scary man over there told me to wake you up."

Andre pointed to the man who had driven them there. The man motioned for them to come to him. Eric got up, and both him and Andre walked over to him.

"Sleep good?"

"I guess. How long was I out for?"

"About 30 minutes. But the guy upstairs will see you now. Come with me."

Eric and Andre followed the man through a set of double doors, which led to a winding staircase. They climbed the staircase 2 stories to the top floor, then walked through another set of double doors.

The room they walked in was a semi-large office room, with a singular desk at the other side. A man was sitting in a chair, his back turned to Eric and Andre, facing a large map of the United States hung on the wall.

"Sir, the Brandson boys. They're here."

The man turned around, and looked directly at Eric and Andre. "Eric, Andre! It's been way too long!"

Eric recognized the voice and the man instantly, and his eyes went wide.

"Bear?"

"Come here, you little troublemaker!"

Eric walked briskly to the man and hugged him.

Andre just looked at them, his face twisted in confusion. Bear pulled away from Eric and looked down at Andre.

"Tiny, little Andre. You're so big now! Last time I saw you, you were maybe 2 or 3 years old. You've gotta be what, 10? 11?"

Andre crossed his arms. "9."

"9!? Only 9!?" Bear let out a laugh. "You're already younger than you look."

Eric walked up to Andre.

"Andre, this is Nick. Me and dad called him Bear when he lived here and came to visit, because he would always bear hug me every time we saw him. We can trust this guy."

"Those were the days. How is your dad, by the way?"

Eric shrugged. "We have no clue. He's away in Florida on business. What are you doing back in Missouri?"

"I was on my way back to surprise visit you guys. Then-" he paused for a moment.

"Then all of this crap happened. I thought all of you were dead."

"We me and Andre are alive. But I don't know about mom. She left the house before I woke up, and we found a recording she left us at her office space. I don't know where she is now."

"On this thing?"

Bear pulled the MP3 with the piece of paper from pocket.

"Yeah that's it. Did you listen to it?"

"No, I didn't. I dont know how to work these damn things. What did your mom say?"

"My aunt has set up a safe house in Georgia and is trying to get as much family as she can down there. So I guess that's my plan, for now."

Bear gave him a concerned look.

"You want to get to Georgia? It's almost impossible to leave the city, much less to cross an entire state. It would be mad to leave."

"All I know is that it's safe place for Andre. I have to try."

"Eric, THIS is a safe place for Andre," he gestured all around him, talking about the lot.

"We can't risk it. There's walkers and crazies everywhere. You won't even make it out of Missouri."

"Maybe, with your help, we can. Look at all these people you have. Nobody would stop us."

Bear thought on Eric's words for a moment.

"I don't know. I'll think about it."

Bear then looked Eric up and down. "If you're going anywhere, you gotta be prepared. Have the proper equipment, have the proper knowledge. You use any weapons?"

"I had a bat that a friend of mine have me, but I think those bastards from the warehouse took it."

"Anyone can swing around a bat and say they can fight. You need proper training. In both hand to hand and firearms. Would you be up for talking to a few of our men and educating yourself? You need it, or else you wont get very far. Especially with a little boy following you around."

Eric nodded. "If it helps me protect him better, I'll do it."

"Good. Come with me."

Eric and Andre followed Bear back out of the building and towards a dirt lot, which seems to have been made into a makeshift sparring arena. "Andre, you can stand by and watch. Eric, talk with those men over there."

Eric began talking with the men, and they showed him basics, and useful techniques of survival, fighting, effective ways to deal with trouble, useful things to use out in the world.

He would be a whole different, more knowledgeable person before he even realized it.


	7. First Assignment

**A quick author note, skip ahead if not interested: I want to give a big thanks to the few of you who have diligently been reading and keeping up with the story. This is my first full on story that I've written, so I know it isn't perfect. But I try to put as much thought and effort into the chapters as possible, and make this into the best story it can possibly be. Any and all constructional feedback is welcome, and would be much appreciated. Now, back to Eric and Andre.**

Eric sat in the small picnic area outside of the main building. Most of the people who inhabited the shelter just ate in their tents. Eric and Andre lived in their own rooms inside the building, as per request of Bear. Eric would ask Bear how he managed to get such a huge group of people together in such a short amount of time, and Bear would just shrug and say it was too long of an explanation.

"Man, where is that kid?"

Eric had been waiting on Andre for 10 minutes now. Usually he was outside and eating by now.

It had been 8 days since Eric and Andre had show up and found Bear. In that time, Eric learned more than he did in 9 months of school. What Markus had told him was right. Not only will you turn into a walker of you get bit by one, but if you die at all from anything, you come back as one of them no matter what.

The lot had been split up into different groups, "squadrons," who each specialized in something different. One group was the butchers and cooks, the people who organized the food into rations and prepared it for serving.

Another group was known as scouts. People who ran out into the city, tried to find supplies, or other survivors in need, and bring them back. Eric met the one who watched as Eric and Andre were taken. Her name was Brenda.

"I wanted to do something. Really, I did. But there was only one of me, and there was a whole van full of them. There wasn't anything I could-"

"It's fine. You don't need to apologize." Eric interrupted. "But I am curious about something."

"Sure?"

"Why did you come back here to get help? You could have just paid no mind and been on your way. Why did you help us?"

She thought for a moment. "I saw the little boy with you. I didn't want you to somehow lose him like I lost-"

She choked up, and paused for a second.

"I lost my friend. My best friend. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I just found him as one of those things at his house."

"I'm sorry. What was his name?"

Brenda was clearly trying to fight tears. "Thomas. His name was Thomas."

Eric looked at her sympathetically. "I lost a friend too. I didnt ever know him too well, but that didn't keep him from dying so that me and my brother could escape. He saved us."

Brenda put a hand on his shoulder. "That's why I do this. People have died, put their lives on the line for us. We can't just give up. For them."

Eric remembered the conversation fondly.

For them.

The words would echo in his mind whenever he felt overwhelmed by anything.

The biggest group on the lot were the soldiers. The people who went out and got their hands dirty, the people who went and pulled Eric and Andre out of the warehouse.

Eric was working with them on his fighting technique. He still wasn't perfect with it, but he felt he knew enough to get out of a scrap if he needed to. He had also been working with Bear on his shooting. Eric's aim was pretty good, because his dad would take him to the range when he was younger. He felt like he was pretty good shot, but a little practice never hurt anyone, right?

It felt like hours, but Andre finally walked out of the main hall with a plate of food. Rice and mashed potatoes. He did his little waddle over to the table to where Eric was plunked and sat down.

"Eric, how much longer?" Andre asked.

Eric looked up from his plate and at Andre.

"How much longer what, little dude?"

"Do we have to stay here? I thought mom and dad were in Georgia?"

Eric looked down at his plate, feeling guilty. He had told Andre that mom and dad were in Georgia and were waiting on them, to make Andre feel better. But the truth was, their dad was most likely a walker in Flordia by now, and their mother was God knows where. Most likely dead as well.

"Just until we have what we need to leave. You think we're gonna just stroll across an entire state with what's going on out there? We need a vehicle. We need weapons, food. Enough to last us for the trip. That's just how it is until the army comes through."

"I dont get it. Why has no one killed the monsters and saved us yet?"

Eric just kinda shrugged as he took a bite. "I don't know. Maybe they never will."

He looked up at Andre. Andre had a tear rolling down his cheek.

"Hey, hey, everything is going to be fine, okay? Even if they never do, we'll be on our way to go see mom and dad soon. Everything is gonna be okay."

Andre nodded and wiped his tear away. Then continued to eat.

15 minutes later, Eric and Andre were still eating when Bear came up to the table.

"Eric, you see that group of soldiers over there?"

Eric looked over to where Bear was pointing, and saw that a group of the soldiers were entering a truck. Most likely headed off to an assignment.

"Yeah, I do."

"They're going off to look into an old cabin out in the middle of the woods. One of our scouts says they saw Devs taking people there."

"I'm sorry, Devs?" Eric asked.

"Slang some of our scouts came up with. Short for devils. White devils. Anyway, they want you to go with them this time. Your first assignment. What do you say?"

Eric looked back at the truck to see all the people loaded in it were looking off into his direction, as if waiting for him.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Good. You'll need these." Bear gave him a pistol. "I would have given you something better, but our arsenal is getting pretty short. Scouts haven't been able to trip onto any guns for a while."

Bear then handed Eric a walkie talkie.

"This is how we communicate with people who are out on assignment, and how people on assignment communicate with each other. Keep it on channel 11."

Eric nodded, then took the clip on the walkie talkie and attached it to his belt.

"Good luck."

Eric looked down at Andre. "Behave while I'm gone. Do whatever Bear tells you to do, got it?"

Andre nodded, a worried expression on his face.

Eric smiled at him.

"I'll be back before you know it, alright little dude?"

Andre nodded again.

Eric turned around and walked toward the truck.

"Passenger seat is all yours." Someone in the back told him.

Eric circled the cab of the truck and got into the passenger seat. Luckily, Eric knew everyone in the cab.

The driver was Derek, the same driver who drove Eric and Andre away from the warehouse. No one quite knew a vehicle like he did.

The person directly behind Eric in the backseat was Bryan. He wasn't the smartest person in the group, but damn if he couldn't shoot a target perfectly from many yards away with his eyes closed. He was like a wild west apocalypse sharpshooter.

The person next to Bryan was Jason. Jason was a bit older then everyone else in the cab, in his late 20s. He was a doctor in Kansas City before everything happened. If anyone needed a medic on the battlefield, he would be there.

Derek started the truck, and the group rolled off onto the dirt road from the lot. Another truck filled with men and women prepping for a fight followed close behind.

"So what do you guys think is going on at this cabin?" Bryan asked from the backseat.

"Devs have been taking people from the city and stashing them there. Who knows what else?" Derek said.

"Maybe there's a family who lives there who secretly eat people, so the Devs take people their to satisfy their hunger." Jason joked.

"Shut the fuck up, man that shit is nasty. I wouldn't eat anybody end of the world or not." Derek said.

"I dont think anybody could be THAT far gone. Who would eat another human being?" Eric said.

"I got an idea. How about we play the damn quiet game. Ya'll grossing me out." Derek said. Everyone complied and stayed silent.

The truck moved along bumps in the road, the one behind them doing their best to keep up.

About a half hour passed when the driver from the other truck came on the radio. "Yo man, that it up there?" Both trucks were passing slowly in front of a big mountain. Eric looked up a little ways, and, sure enough, there was a large wood log cabin towards the middle of a mountain, with a little dirt road leading from the road they were driving on to the cabin.

"Yeah, that's it. I see Dev trucks in front of it." Derek spoke back into his radio.

The other driver talked back, in a nervous voice.

"Alright man.. we should probably go on foot from here."

Eric and all the boys in the cab got out of the truck, slowly closing the doors behind them, trying not to cause too much noise.

"Alright guys." Derek began. "This is it. Stay low, make minimal noise. Let's keep this on the down low. If things get loud, we move quickly, and we do what we gotta do. Understand?"

Everyone nodded in unison.

"Let's go."

Everyone got into small lines and began to creep up towards the hill.

There were lights on inside, and vehicles parked outside, but no one was standing outside, as far as Eric could see. Soon, everyone was up close to the entrance to the cabin. Derek walked up to the steps that led to the door. "Eric, Craig. On me."

Craig was a soldier from the other group that followed them. Eric hadn't talked to Craig, but he had seen him in the training ring. He could definitely handle himself.

Both Eric and Craig got on Derek's sides, and closed on together. "Ready?" Derek asked.

Eric and Craig nodded.

Derek faced the door. He did a brisk walk to it and tried the knob.

"God dammit. Locked. Guess we're doing this the loud way." Derek faced the door and kicked it open.

Derek rushed in, Eric and Craig close on his heels on either side, all had their guns up, ready to shoot anything that made a move.

Empty. It was a large room with a fireplace, which was lit.

"Someone's gotta be here, let's-"

Something exploded through the window. A gunshot. People outside were shooting in at them.

"Shit! Get behind something!"

Derek got behind the dining table facing the window the shot came from, while Craig and Eric flipped over one of the sofas and got behind it. Shots came in from more windows. Eric could hear the team outside shouting and running for cover.

"What the hell do we do?" Craig shouted over the gunfire.

"The guys outside got this, we need to get downstairs and fi-"

Derek was interrupted by someone pulling him from out from his cover spot. Someone was in the room they didn't see. He then got on top of Derek and pulled a knife. Derek managed to catch his attackers hands before he plunged the knife into his chest. They were struggling with each other.

"Shit!"

Eric pulled his pistol from his hip and pointed it at the man.

Line it up... close... almost there... hang in there Derek... BANG!

Eric shot his gun. The bullet landed straight in the head of Derek's attacker. Derek pushed the man off of him as he fell limp to the floor.

"Holy shit. Good shot!" Craig said.

"Craig, on me, we need to get outside and help the others. Eric, you go down into the basement and find the hostages. If theyre still there."

Eric nodded at Derek and they split up. Eric kept his gun drawn in case there was more trouble. The stairs leading downward led to a single wooden door with a lock on it.

He walked up to the door with his gun out, and slowly pulled the lock. Once the door was unlocked, he slowly opened it.

The first thing he saw was the large room, with cages lined up on either side, both filled with people. Some alive, some dead. Shot in the head, most likely to prevent turning.

But the second thing he noticed, is that right in front of the door, a few feet away, there was a dead Dev lying on the floor. And there was a girl kneeled down, leaning over him. Looting his body for supplies.

Eric took a step towards the woman, and the wooden plank beneath him creaked. The woman became startled, immediately turned around and drew a gun on Eric. Eric held up his pointed at her as well.

"Relax, lady. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to save you. I'm with-" he stopped.

He got a good look at the woman. Blonde hair. White skin. The most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen. He could recognize them anywhere.

He lowered his gun, and she lowered hers as well.

"Oh my god." She said.

Eric could barely stammer out what he said.

"A... Am... Amelia?"


	8. High Temperature

Amelia and Eric just stared at each other in disbelief.

There she was, standing there, alive and well. Well, maybe not so much well, but she was alive.

Finally, after what seemed like minutes to Eric, she rushed forward and threw her arms around him. She cried into his shoulder.

Eric was slightly taken aback by this, but he wrapped his arms around her, and they stood there embraced in each other. Eric felt like he could stay like that forever.

"I thought you were gone! I thought you were dead!" Amelia choked out through sobs. Eric just squeezed her tighter. He didn't really know what to say.

He looked behind her, at the people in the cages. He noticed something that seemed extremely odd. Most of the people, no, ALL the people in the cages.. they were all females. Both the alive and the dead ones, not one of them was a guy. Then Eric noticed what they were wearing. Some girls didn't have tops, some didn't have pants. Some had neither. Most of them would cower in the corner, trying to shield their private areas from the vision of others.

The girls who had both tops and bottoms on had their shirts cut above the waist, exposing their bellybutton and lower back. Their pants were cut to the upper thigh, shorter than the boxer shorts Eric usually wears.

Eric looked down at Amelia. She was wearing the same clothes as those women. Shirt and pants, cut super short.

"Amelia.. what happened to you? What happened to these people here?"

Amelia lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up at him. Tears still fell from her eyes.

"They were... awful... horrible... sick bastards, Eric. Complete animals."

Eric immediately realized what she meant. He pulled her in, and she began to cry more.

"Those dead women... they were the ones who wouldn't cooperate. Wouldn't do what they were asked."

"So if you're not dead, that means you..."

"No." She interrupted. "They didn't.. go all the way. With me. But some of these women here, they did. They would just do it in front of everyone. And don't care about how humiliated these women here are, to be taken advantage of like that. They were horrible."

"Don't worry about any of that now. You're safe, okay? We're getting you and all these people out of here."

Amelia nodded and leaned back into Eric. Resting her head on his shoulder.

The radio went off on Eric's belt.

"Eric.. Eric I think all the men outside are dead. What happened to you down there?"

Eric pulled the radio away from his belt and spoke into it. "I found the hostages. Get a group of people down here. You need to see this."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"That's it up there? You're sure?"

"Yeah man, I'm telling you. This is it."

Eric sat in the passenger seat of his friend Kyron's car. Kyron had invited him and Markus along to meet up with some girls. They would spend the day with them. Eric was extremely nervous. Each of the guys had a "designated girl" that was gonna be there. Markus wanted to talk to a girl named Nilah, and girl with short, black, frizzy hair and was almost as dark skinned as he was. Kyron would try to win a girl named Mina over. Kyron had a very bad habit of.. taking girls home, and then being done with them the next day, so Eric was unsure of how that would pan out.

But something he was even more unsure of was how it would go with the girl he was pitted with. A girl named Amelia. He had only seen pictures of her so far, but she was hot. Like, really hot. One of the hottest girls in school. He didn't know how, or why, but his friends had wanted him to talk to her for weeks now.

But there was something else making him nervous for how things would go. Eric promised that he would stay at home today, and babysit Andre while his parents were out running errands. He couldn't just leave Andre at home, which meant he had to-

"Eric, what are we doing here? I don't like this restaurant. Can we go to a different one?" Andre asked from the backseat. Markus rolled his eyes. "Bro, there's no way you couldn't have just left this dude at home?"

Eric shook his head. "Last time we left him unwatched at the house, my mom paid almost $50 in replacement dishes for all the ones he broke."

Andre threw his arms up. "It was an ACCIDENT."

Eric rolled his eyes and stared back out the window at the diner, while Kyron pulled into an open park space. In that diner, 3 girls were waiting for them. He couldn't contain his butterflies.

"Alright guys. Predators dont leave their prey waiting. Let's go."

Eric didn't like the analogy, but didn't say anything. If anything, Eric felt like HE was the prey.

'Okay, okay, okay. You're overreacting. Just calm down.' He took a few deep breaths.

'The worst she can do is say no. Say no.. and embarrass you in front of your friends... and everyone in the immediate vicinity... and laugh at you...' the butterflies came back in double.

Markus put a hand on Eric's shoulder. "Relax dude. We're just going into arestaurant, not a haunted house."

Kyron rolled his eyes. "He's got romance-a-phobia. Hates talking to hot chicks."

"Screw you." Eric shot back. "I don't hate talking to chicks."

Kyron motioned to follow him. "Cmon then, Romeo."

"Eric, why does the restaurant serve ducks?"

Kyron burst with a laughter, while Markus facepalmed.

"No, not THOSE kinds of chicks, Andre. It's just another term for girl."

"Why not just call them girls?"

"Its... grown up slang. You'll get it when you're older."

"Cmon man. We can't keep them waiting much longer." Kyron called out.

With that, the group walked into the diner. They found the group of girls they came to meet, and sat down.

"You guys are late," Nilah said.

"Fashionably, though, girls. Fashionably late." Kyron replied.

"I dont think you know what that means." Markus said.

They all erupted into laughter.

"Hey, who's little cutie is that?" Mina asked, pointing at Andre. Andre just kind of shot a confused look back at her.

"He's my little brother, his name's Andre. I couldn't leave him at home, so he'll be joining us today." Eric explained.

"Well, at least there will be a 4th option if you 3 are no fun." Nilah said.

Kyron waved his hand. "That will not be an issue, I assure you. I've already got all of tonight planned out. We're gonna have a good time."

Kyrom began to explain his plans to the girls, while Markus helped him. That made those 4 occupied, and only the last girl and Eric not occupied. The girl opposite him broke the silence.

"So, you're Eric? The guy I keep hearing about?"

Eric shrugged. "That's me.. wait, you've been hearing about me?"

The girl nodded. "The chicken pot pie story is my favorite one about you."

Eric blushed. One time, his junior year, he slammed a freshmans face into chicken pot pie, the school lunch for that day, because he thought the freshman had chucked a piece of food at him. He actually didn't know to that day whether or not he actually did, but it made for a funny story.

"That was a pretty interesting event."

Suddenly, Andre began to speak. "Eric said you looked 'hot'. Why is your temperature so high?"

Eric blushed even more and his eyes went wide.

Amelia chuckled a bit to herself.

"Little dude, I need you to stop speaking. Right now. Just don't talk. Do not say anything. Wait until we are done."

Andre shrugged. "I was just asking."

"So Mr. Brandson, care to explain what makes my 'temperature so high?'" Amelia asked with a sly smile on her face.

Eric looked back at Amelia and began to stammer.

"I.. uh... well, you know..."

Amelia chuckled to herself again. "I'm kidding. But your brother is really funny. I like him."

Eric looked at her. "He's a lot smoother than I am. And he doesn't even know what girls are yet. You could go out with him."

Amelia stirred her drink with her straw with a few seconds, then rested her head on her hand.

"You know, that is definitely a possibility. But, I think I already have my eyes on someone else." She then winked at him.

Eric couldn't help but be surprised at what he said. He looked to his right. Everyone sitting at the table was looking at them, smiling.

Eric smiled too. Suddenly, he didn't feel so nervous anymore.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wake up sleepyhead. We're here."

Eric woke up to being shaken by Amelia. She was sitting next to him in the backseat of the truck.

"You looked like you slept well."

"Yeah, I did. I had a dream."

"Oh really? About what?"

"The day we met. Right after school started."

"So you find me and all of the sudden you're having dreams about me?" She smiled at him. "You must've missed me a lot."

"I did. I was worried about what happened to you."

"Well, I'm here now." She leaned forward and they kissed. Eric climbed out of the car with Amelia following close behind him. Bear walked up to him.

"So, how did it go? What'd you find?" Bear then noticed Amelia standing behind Eric. "Who's this?"

"One of the hostages being held at the camp. They have the other trucks headed there to get the rest of the girls out now."

"Good. That's really good."

"Sir! Sir!"

Bryan was jogging up to Bear while calling to him.

"We found something crazy in that cabin. You've gotta see this!"

Two men came up behind Bryan with a large, rolled up blanket. They set the blanket on the ground and unrolled it, revealing what was inside. Bear's jaw dropped.

It was weapons. A lot of them. Ammunition too.

"This was at the cabin? The one you raided?"

"And theres at least 3 more blankets of this. Plus whatever the other crew comes back with."

Bear just stared down at it in disbelief. Then he looked up to Eric.

"We may have enough firepower to get you to your little safehouse in Georgia, after all."


	9. Regrets

**So last night was the finale of Clementine's story. I won't spoil anything here but... damn. What a rollercoaster. Thank you telltale, for all the amazing games. And thank you skybound, for seeing it through to the end. The rest of this story is for you. (Also be warned this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, because it's kinda just a set up for the next chapter. still, hope you enioy.)**

"Do you have to do that EVERY time you go out shooting?" Andre asked.

Eric sat on a small chair in the corner of the room they were staying at the shelter. He had all of his magazines laid out onto the small table set next to him. He was taking the magazines and loading them up with bullets Bear had given him.

Eric looked at Andre. "Yeah. I do. We've got to keep the magazines loaded at all times, in case we gotta use them. I know it takes a long time but it's necessary."

Eric looked back down at the magazine and began to load it more. "Why don't you go outside and play with the other kids? Who knows, you might just make some new friends?"

Andre got a disgusted look on his face. "Gross. No."

"Why not?"

"There's only two groups of people who are my size. One of them is the boys, I've tried talking to some of them but they don't like any of the same things I like. So I didn't want to be their friend.

"The other group is the girls. And they're... well..."

Eric put down the loaded magazine, and picked up another empty to one to start it.

"They're what?" Eric asked.

"Girls are... icky."

Eric laughed just a bit at Andre's remark.

"Icky? Trust me little dude, there will come a time when you'll want to hang out with girls more than your actual friends. It hits all of us at some point."

Andre shook his head. "Not me. I will NEVER get that disease."

Eric just smiled and continued loading the magazine. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

Eric and Andre were silent for a while, the only noises coming from Eric loading his magazine and people from outside talking to one another. Andre spoke again after a few minutes.

"Eric? Is this where we live now?"

"No. In fact, we might be leaving pretty soon. When we found those guns at the cabin a few days ago, I talked with Bear about us taking some on our roadtrip. He'll give us guns, food, and gas for the drive. We'll be pretty set."

"I can't wait to see mom and dad again. It's gonna be so good to see them again."

Eric frowned, and stayed silent after Andre said that.

"How far is it?"

"Hm?"

"How far is Georgia from here?"

"From here, Warrensburg to Georgia? I'd say about a day."

Andre just looked at the ground and nodded.

While Andre went back to being silent, Eric began to think. Every once in a while, Eric would think about the cabin. More specifically, the man he killed. He was attacking Derek, and maybe would've killed him if Eric hadn't done anything but... Eric had never killed anyone before. It was something he did out of pure instinct, for the safety of his friend. But, could he have avoided taking his life? Maybe if he had rushed over and pulled the man off, no one would have had to get shot.

Then he would think about the girls. All those poor girls trapped in cages, being forced to submit to whatever their captors wanted. It took the trucks three trips there and back, but they finally got every last one out. Most of the women had fallen in with different groups, trying to help out wherever they could, in exchange for being saved from the Devs.

The ones who were too traumatized or mentally unstable to do work stayed in their tents, and had frequent checkups with an ex dialysis social worker. She wasn't exactly a therapist, but as far as Eric could tell, she did a pretty good job. After seeing the traumatized girls, they would sometimes come out of their tents to see their friends.

Eric would think about his parents. His dad was miles away. He wanted to think that maybe, just maybe, he was still out there somewhere, safe, with a group of his own. But in reality, he was most likely one of many in a walker horde by now. And his mom.

Eric found himself thinking more about his mom than he cared to admit. For the last 2 years or so, Eric and his mom really didn't get along that well. Susan always talked about how Eric should be planning ahead for the future, and constantly asked him what he wanted to do, but Eric never really wanted to talk about it.

Eric felt like he should be able to make his own decision, come up with a plan on his own for when he is out of high school, and not have to be under his parent's foot all the time about it. This led to many arguments, and their relationship becoming more and more distant with each one.

Eric before all the walkers and crazy people was cold and cynical towards his mom. Wish she wouldn't always butt into every little mistake he made, always hounding him about his grades, about how he should get a job, apply for colleges, stop messing around with people who were 'bad influences,' the list went on.

But now, all Eric really wanted to do was hug his mom tight, tighter than he ever had, and tell her how sorry he was. About how he'll do his best to make things right in their relationship, and how he'll do his best to be a good example for Andre. But now, his mom was gone, probably dead, and Andre was his only family that he had left.

The hardest part about it all was that his last conversation between him and his mom was an argument. The same argument they would have every single time. She gets mad, he gets mad, they blow up on each other, they don't talk for days, sometimes up to a week. Only this time, he would probably never get the chance to say he was sorry.

Eric's thoughts were interrupted by the door opening.

"Knock knock," someone said as the door swung. Amelia walked through.

"Hey, Andre. What are you doing in here, all by yourself? You know there are other kids playing outside, right?"

Andre looked at her and crossed his arms. "I know."

She shrugged. "Your call." She then looked over to Eric.

"Surprised you're awake, sleepyhead. No beauty sleep today?"

Eric chuckled to himself. "Not this time."

Eric put the final magazine back on the table next to him. The only bad thing about not really having any chores to do around the shelter besides take care of himself and Andre was that, there really wasn't much to do. He usually just found himself talking to Andre, Amelia, or Bear to pass the time, when he wasn't out at the range practicing his aiming, or in the spar ring working on his punches.

Amelia kneeled down next to Andre, and nudged him with her shoulder. "I have an important mission for you. Interested?"

Andre turned on his butt in her direction, and squinted at her.

"What is it?"

"I need you to take this to Bear." She pulled out a piece of folded paper from her pocket and gave it to him. "It's inventory taken for the food so we can ration it. Its very important he gets it. Think you can handle it?"

Andre stood up and saluted at her. "Aye, aye, captain. Back in a jif!"

With that, Andre took the paper from her hand and marched out of the room. Amelia looked to Eric. "He's so cute."

"Yeah, yeah, so I've heard from everyone who's ever met him."

Amelia put her hands on her hips. "Dont worry Eric, you've got your share of good looks too." They both laughed a little.

Amelia then grew a somewhat serious look on her face. "Has it.. has it been hard? Looking after him all by yourself through this?"

Eric thought for a second, then shrugged. "The first day, yeah. It was. I honestly thought we would die. We had no where to go, and our only lead was that recording. Which tells us me and Andre had to go to Georgia. When I heard that, I almost lost all hope, there was no way me and Andre would've walked that whole way. But ever since Bear found us, I think we may have a chance after all."

Amelia thought on what he said. Then, she grew an upset look on her face.

"So does... does that mean.. I'm not-" before she could finish, both Eric and Amelia felt a huge vibration in the ground. Then they heard people screaming outside.

"Oh my god. What is that?" Amelia asked, panicking.

"Go find Andre. Get him somewhere safe. I'm gonna go check out what's happening."

Eric grabbed his pistol, loaded one magazine into the gun and strapped the rest on his belt, then ran outside.

The site he came across was brutal. Half the lot of tents was filled with smoke, and bodies could be seen where it was visible.

Eric looked at the smoke to see.. silhouettes? 1.. no, 3? No no, definitely 6 or 7. He began to see more and more outlines of people walking through the smoke and getting closer. Bear and Derek joined Eric at his sides.

"What the hell is going on out here?" Bear asked.

"I have no clue. I just came out myself." Eric replied.

Finally, the silhouettes came out of the smoke, revealing who the figures were. Eric froze up.

It was the man who had captured Eric, and interrogated him in the warehouse. He had a long scar running from the edge of his eye to his earlobe, where the bullet had grazed him during the shootout, and his eye was discolored.

"Hey again, _Eric_. Miss me, you little shit?"


	10. The Drawing

"You fuckers weren't too hard to find. With the right motivation, everyone yaps eventually."

Two Devs came up from behind the man, each on one side of a person with a bad over their head. The one on the right side kicked the person in the back of the knee, causing them to drop to their knees on the ground. The one on the other side pulled the bag off. It was Brenda.

She had tears rolling down her face, along with bruises and what appeared to be burn marks on the arms.

"I'm so sorry." She said. "I'm so.. I'm so.."

She began to cry uncontrollably. All Bear did was look at her with a worried expression on his face.

Eric didn't know about anyone else, but personally he didn't blame her. She was visibly hurt pretty bad, and she was shaking and crying unlike anything he'd seen. And with what they found at the cabin the other day, it was only left to the imagination what else they might have done to her. Anyone would have given them up if they had to endure what she did.

"Grant, this has nothing to do with her. Let her go!" Bear demanded.

_Grant? His name was Grant?_

"Fuck you!" He screamed back at him.

"What do you want? Why are you here?"

"What do I want? You fuck up my face and have the audacity to not only steal my toys, but, my weapons as well, and you ask me what I want? I want you bitches to suffer, is what I want."

"It doesn't have to be like this!" Derek called out. "Maybe we can come to some sort of agreement here?"

"Oh yeah, I have an agreement." Grant said. "You be good boys and girls and stand still while we take all your shit."

"I can't let you do that!" Bear said.

Grant smiled.

"Then we get to do this the fun way." He pulled out a revolver, while the rest of the men surrounding him pulled out assault rifles of some kind.

"Either you surrender now, or we send you to hell." Grant said, him and all of his men now pointing guns at Eric, Bear, and Derek. "You're outnumbered. I guess I just have too many friends."

Brenda was now lying fully on the ground, still crying. Grant pointed his revolver at her head and pulled the trigger. Blood splattered onto the dirt, and Brenda's body went limp.

"You son of a bitch!" Derek shouted.

"Don't worry, boy. You'll be seeing her again real soon." Grant said.

"You know, you're wrong." Bear said. Grant's face went skeptical.

"What?" Bear just smiled.

"We have friends too."

A bullet came from the roof of the building behind him, and hit one of the men pointing guns at Eric's group. He instantly fell to the ground.

The men with Grant all began shooting in random directions, as people from the main building and from the woods began to fire back on them. Eric ran behind a metal trash can for cover, while Derek and Bear ran behind a truck. Eric could see Grant pull a radio from the back of his belt, and talk into it.

Suddenly, molotovs began being thrown from the front and into the shelter lots. The tents caught on fire instantly, sending it and all the surrounding tents and whatever else was flammable up in flames.

"We need to get the hell out of here, now!" Bear shouted. Derek and Bear ran for the main building, and Eric followed. They ran as fast as they could to the door. As soon as all three were inside, Eric slammed the door behind them. Gunfire and screams could still be heard outside.

"Shit, man. Everybody okay?" Derek asked.

"Not everyone." Bear said, looking out the window. He had the saddest expression Eric had ever seen.

"There's nothing we can do now. We've gotta go." Derek put his hand on Bear's shoulder.

Bear nodded, and turned away from the window.

"Fuck. Andre. I need to find him." Eric said.

"Eric!" Eric heard Amelia's voice from the other side of the lobby. Her and Andre were running up to him.

"Thank god you guys are okay."

"Us? We thought you were dead. We heard the gunshots, and we saw the flames, and-"

"Well we're not yet," Derek said. "But we will be if we keep wasting our time in here. They'll bust through the door any minute."

"The garage." Bear said. "It's where my truck is. Let's go."

They all followed Bear into a door that led to a dimly lit garage interior. Inside of it was a big silver truck, one where you had to step up on built in steps to reach the seats. Eric, Andre, and Amelia all got into the backseat, while Bear hopped into the driver's seat, and Derek rode shotgun.

Bear pressed a button on the overhead sunvisor, and the garage door opened. "You guys ready?"

He pulled out of the garage and began driving on a dirt road that ran out of the back and onto the street. Eric looked in the rear view mirror and saw the shelter. Or at least, the smoke coming from it. And the bodies surrounding it.

"Fuck man.. fuck!" Bear shouted, pounding his hands on the steering wheel with each word.

"Calm down! We made it." Derek said.

"Fuck that! They didn't." Bear looked in the mirror on the door back at the shelter. "We should have stayed. We should have helped them."

"Look out!" Amelia yelled, pointing at the opposite side of the truck of where she was sitting. A black car came seemingly out of no where, and was now following them.

"Dammit!" Derek shouted. He and Eric rolled down their windows, and began using their guns to fire at the car. The person in the passenger seat of the car fired back, only the weapon they were using was fully automatic.

Eric reach out his arm to point his gun at the car and shoot again, when a bullet hit him in the shoulder. Pure pain ripped through it, and then through his entire body. Holy crap, it hurt worse than anything he'd ever felt.

"ERIC!" Andre shouted, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I'm gonna fucking kill you sons of bitches!" Derek shouted, still firing his gun at the car.

"Eric, no!" Amelia shouted.

"God dammit, they're fucking relentless!" Bear yelled.

Between the shouting, and the pure pain he felt, Eric began to go numb to everything. Eventually, all he saw was black.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Oh god. I feel like total crap. Why do I always feel like total crap?_

Eric woke up to the wind building up outside of his window. It was completely dark in his room, the only sort of illumination coming from his alarm clock on the nightstand of his bed. He looked over to it.

12:07. He had been asleep for about 3 hours. The last thing he remembered was sitting in bed, texting Amelia and Kyron, making plans for the following day after school. Kyron had randomly stopped texting him, something Eric found pretty off, but just assumed he had other things to do and couldn't talk at the moment. Before that, he, Andre, and Susan were sat at the table for dinner. She had gone to bed early, because the next morning she was supposed to fly to Florida.

Andre had gone to bed himself not too soon after that, and Eric shortly followed. Eventually he fell asleep while he was on his phone, and had now awaken a few hours later at midnight. For some reason, his head would hurt and he would be in cold sweat whenever he woke up way too early. Every time this happened, Eric would have to go to the kitchen to take medicine for it.

Eric flipped himself around to where he was sitting on the edge of his bed. Then he stood up and walked out of the room, aimed for the kitchen. He still turned on the lights in the kitchen, even though he had done this so many times he could probably do it blindfolded.

He went to the medicine cabinet and took out a bottle full of pills. He popped the cap off and gently poured 2 in his hand. He then twisted the cap back on and put the bottle back. He then went for the fridge, to grab a bottle of water to down the pills.

He reached for the handle and nearly opened the fridge when something inside caught his eye. It was a drawing. Andre's drawing, the one he had given to mom before she hounded Eric about the cigarettes and his grades again. He took a good look at it.

It was a drawing of him, Andre, and their mom, he could tell because Andre always drew them the same way. The three were standing on top of a big green bump, which Eric assumed was supposed to be a hill, and the three were holding hands with each other. Above their heads, a heart was hovering, to show that everyone in the picture loved each other.

Eric felt sad looking at it. He knew that Andre saw, or at least heard, the fights between him and his mom, and he also knew Andre never liked it when they did. Andre wanted so bad for them to be a loving family, with no fighting or anger between them at all. But unfortunately, that just wasn't the case in the real world.

The picture Eric saw on that drawing was a great little fantasy of Andre's, but that's all it was. A fantasy. Something that would be great if it could actually exist but it just doesnt. He had dug the relationship between him and his mom into such a hole that Eric truly believed there was no way they could recover from it. And he didn't really care.

All she was to him was nagging and annoying. She always got mad at him for stuff that should be his choice, stuff only he has to deal with the consequences of. He just wanted to be rid of her, for good, and was looking forward to the end of his high school days.

Eric snapped himself out of his thoughts and opened the fridge. He grabbed the bottle and pulled it from the fridge, then shut it. He looked at the picture of the happy family Andre drew one last time, then he walked away, back to his room. He needed to get his rest.

He had a big day the next day.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wha.. where am I?"

"Shhh. Please, don't talk. Just rest."

Eric woke up lying on his back, staring up at the lanky tree trunks that seemed to go into the sky for miles, and seemed to have a million branches hanging off of them. He looked to his right, to see his shoulder. Oh god, his shoulder.

He immediately began to feel the pain again after he remembered what happened. An automatic weapon was being fired at him from another vehicle. One of the bullets landed directly into his shoulder, and everything else after that was a haze.

"Oh god.. it hurts.. it-"

"Shhhh."

He looked to his left to see Amelia sat cross legged on the ground next to him, tracing her fingers across his chest, trying to keep him relaxed. "Close your eyes. Just rest. Please." She asked. She leaned down and gently kissed his cheek.

He nodded his head. He closed his eyes, and put his head onto her leg, which was right next to him.

Eric then began to hear other people talk.

"We can't stay here. It's way too open." Sounded like Derek?

"It's just until Eric gets better. We'll be gone by tomorrow morning, if not tonight." Definitely Bear.

"Walkers are just as common in the woods as they are in the cities. We need to find somewhere easy to defend. Preferably in a more urban area."

"I can't believe this shit. Our place where I thought we'd ride this whole thing out just became a flaming walker home in minutes. That bastard, Grant. He's gonna pay for this."

"I can't believe how he just shot Brenda like that, even after she gave him what he wanted. What a twisted motherfucker."

Eric just listened to them for a while with his eyes closed, while Amelia still ran her fingers across Eric's chest, the only pleasurable feeling he had at the moment. His shoulder still hurt a lot, and it seemed to be most of his upper right torso in pain, getting duller as it got farther away from the wound.

"Amelia... I..." Eric started.

"Eric, please, I need you to rest for me right now. The pain will get dull quicker if you rest."

"Where's Andre?"

"He's in the truck. He was tired. I managed to convince him you'd be okay, so he went to go sleep."

Eric nodded.

"I think.. I think I love you, Amelia."

Amelia just stared down at Eric blankly for a few seconds. Then she smiled. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

"Well, I _think_ I love you, too. Now, rest sleepyhead. You need it."

With that, Eric closed his eyes and leaned his head back onto Amelia's leg.

If it wasn't for Amelia, he probably would've never dozed off as fast as he did then.


	11. Princeton Revolver

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! We are so screwed!"

Everyone was sat around a small campfire in the tiny clearing of trees they had been using to rest since the hours of the attack at the shelter. The place had been completely destroyed, surely overrun by walkers by now, which meant they were pretty much homeless.

Bear was pacing back and forth, freaking out about their lack of resources, while Derek did his best to calm him down. Eric was sat up next to a tree next to the fire, while Amelia laid next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. Andre sat in the dirt nearby, tracing tiny pictures into the ground with his finger.

"We have nothing, no where to go. We're fucked!"

"Would you chill OUT?" Derek asked. "We gotta keep cool about this. You freaking out isn't helping anything."

"I don't think you quite understand the situation we're in here, Derek. We are in the middle of the fucking WOODS. We have no FOOD. We have no WATER."

"We can go to Georgia!" Andre chimed in. "My Aunt has food and shelter there. We'll be safe."

Bear rubbed the cartilage of his nose. "The truck's only got half a tank in her. We won't make it halfway passed Tennessee, much less anywhere near Georgia."

Andre got a sad look on his face, and went back to his doodles in the dirt.

"Look, the only way we're really screwed is if we sit our asses here and do nothing. Maybe we can run back into town and find the stuff we need to get to this magic safe haven of Eric's." Derek proposed.

Bear rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"We can't exactly go grocery shopping for this shit. We got Devs on our tail. We'd be dead or captured before we even made it back into town."

"We run into Dev's, we fuck 'em up. Like we always have."

"Oh I'm sorry, you got some magic back pocket with days worth of ammo I don't know about? Or are you just gonna throw your knife at every one of those bastards?"

Derek began to get more frustrated. "Look, I'm trying to stay positive here. It's only over if we give up."

"Well then, what do you suppose we do?" Bear asked.

Derek sat and thought a moment. "You still have that atlas in your seat pouch?"

"Yeah but, how would that-"

"Bring it to me."

Bear went to the truck and opened the backseat. He dug in the small pouch behind the front seat, and pulled put a book of maps. He closed the door and made his way back to Derek.

"What do you need this for?"

"You'll see."

Derek opened the atlas and flipped through it a bit, he stopped on a map of the U.S. He traced his finger along the page, then tapped on a spot towards the middle.

"La Monte. Ain't that close to here? Maybe we can go there."

"And if it's an overrun walker nest like our shelter is now?"

Derek shrugged. "Then we keep pushing on into Sedalia. See what they got going there."

Bear just shook his head slowly. He let out a big sigh.

"Guess it's better than sitting here doing nothing."

Derek got up on his feet, and patted Bear on the shoulder. "That's the spirit. We ain't got any time to lose."

Bear and Derek started for the truck. Eric tapped Amelia on the shoulder a couple times, trying to get her to wake up.

"What..." she asked groggily.

"We're leaving. We're gonna see if there's anything worth taking in La Monte."

She slowly got up, and followed Eric and Andre to the backseat.

"Everybody ready?" Bear asked from the driver's seat.

"About as ready as we'll ever be." Eric said from the back.

"Cheer up, Eric. We find enough gas for the truck, we just might make it to your safehouse in Georgia."

"I don't think that's an option for us, Nick. Didn't their mom say it was only for their family?" Derek asked.

"We'll get you in." Eric said. "We'll convince them to let you in if we have to. But Aunt Verna is pretty nice from what I remember. I don't think she would mind some extra guests."

"Oh yeah, we'll introduce you guys to our Mom and Dad! They'll love you guys!" Andre said excitedly. Bear looked nervously in his rear view mirror at Andre. "Uh.. your mom and dad? Are there?"

"Yeah, they're already there waiting for us. Eric said so."

Bear then looked in the mirror at Eric, who had turned his face towards the window in shame. Bear just shook his head and turned back to the road.

No one spoke for the rest of the trip.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wake up. It's go time."

Eric rubbed his eyes and tried his best to keep them open. Everyone else had their eyes fixed on Bear. They were parked in the street, which went down as far as Eric could see, and their was a row of buildings on each side.

"Alright, we need to go through these buildings and see if there isn't anything we cant use. Keep your eyes open for walkers. Anything you can find would be great, but if you stumble on gas, bring it." He motioned to the gas meter, which was only two notches away from empty. "We're gonna need it if we're leaving the state."

"I dont think anyone should go anywhere alone." Derek said. "How about me and Nick take the right row of buildings, and you three take the left. If anything happens, we meet back here. Sound good?"

Everyone in the vehicle nodded in agreement. "You still got that gun on you, Eric?" Bear asked.

Eric nodded and patted his pocket. "Locked and loaded."

"Alright everyone. Be careful, and good luck."

With that, everyone got out of the truck. Bear and Derek walked towards the first building on the right side, while Eric, Amelia, and Andre walked in the first building on the left.

"What do you think this place is?" Amelia asked. There was no sign on the front of the building to be found, and the large sign that stood next the road was damaged, making it ineligible. It was a medium sized wooden building, with black metal doors on the front.

"I'm not sure." Eric asked. "Let's just hope there's something useful in there."

The three made their way to the door, Andre following closely behind Eric. Eric pulled his pistol from the back of his belt and held it ready to use in his right hand. He reached out and slowly opened the door with his left.

Eric quickly stepped in and held his gun up. As far as he could tell, the place was empty. "I think it's clear. Come on." Eric motioned for Amelia and Andre to follow him in.

"Andre, you stay in sight. If you see anything dangerous, you call for me. Got it?" Eric told him. Andre nodded his head, then looked around the building.

"Whoah." Andre said in amazement. "This place is cool!" Eric took a look around the building himself. It was an old gun shop. A lot of racks for assault rifles, shotguns, semi-automatics, but all of them were empty. Only the handguns within the glass cases on the bottom remained. Most of the shelves containing ammo were empty as well.

"Why do you think the people who looted this place left the handguns behind?" Eric asked Amelia.

"Probably because of this." She motioned behind the counter. Upon looking, Eric could see that the case behind the counter was shut and locked, which meant the only way to get to the guns would be to either find the key or to break the glass.

"How come they wouldn't just-"

"Break the glass?" Amelia interrupted. "This is a gun store. If the glass broke it would probably set off the alarm. And nowadays, making too much noise can get you killed."

Eric nodded at her explanation.

"WHOAH! SO COOL!" Andre said loudly. He was staring at something in the case on the other side of the interior.

Eric began to walk up to him. "Little dude, I need you to be quiet. We don't know what's out th-" Eric stopped when he saw what Andre was staring at. It was a single revolver, held within a case that had a shape cut out for it. The metal on the revolver was solid gold (or was at least painted that way, Eric couldn't tell), and the handle on it was snow white. Eric never thought he would think a gun was pretty, but if this one wasn't, then there wasn't one in the world at all.

"Wow. That is pretty cool, Eric." Amelia said from behind him. "Too bad there's no way to get to it."

Eric just kept looking at it. "I want that gun. Really badly." Eric then looked back at Amelia. "There's gotta be some way to turn the alarm off."

Amelia shrugged. "Maybe there isn't an alarm. The power went off in Warrensburg, I would assume it did here, as well."

"Is that a chance we want to take?" Eric asked.

"If we want these handguns, yeah. It is."

Eric approached the glass slowly, looking at the revolver while he did so. He took his elbow and slammed it into the glass, completely shattering it. Everyone stood still and quiet for a few seconds. Thankfully, there was no alarm to be heard.

"Awesome!" Andre said. He grabbed the revolver and held it in his hands, flailing it around and pretending to shoot it.

"Andre, stop!" Eric grabbed it from him. He pressed the small latch on the side and opened the chamber. 6 bullets in each slot. The gun was loaded.

"Andre, you gotta be careful. You could've hurt someone, or worse."

"I'm sorry..." Andre expressed a look of sadness. Eric put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright, little dude, just think a bit more from here on out. Once we find somewhere we can take it easy, I'll let you shoot it. How does that sound?"

Andre's face lit up. "Awesome!"

"Speaking of which," Amelia interjected, "is there any ammo left for that? Maybe behind the counter?"

"Good thinking." Eric hopped over the glass case. "Amelia, start busting the other glass cases and getting everything the bag can hold. Guns, ammo, whatever."

Amelia nodded, and went to one side of the counter to start breaking the cases. Eric knelt down and opened the cabinet below the case that held the revolver. He found 9 small boxes, and a piece of paper. Eric unfolded it and it read:

_The Princeton Revolver, owned by Garret Princeton himself, is a beautiful white and gold piece that would make an excellent addition to any firearm enthusiast. Due to the untimely demise of Princeton, we will be shipping his gun and spare ammunition at auction next week. Please see to it the piece is kept in a safe place, and remains undamaged until then."_

Eric put the note back. He took the bag he was carrying, and used his arm to funnel the small boxes into it. "Should be enough bullets until we come across more, at least." He said to himself.

"ERIC! ERIIIIIIIIC!" The three could hear Bear shouting outside.

"Amelia, that's Bear. We gotta go!" Eric said.

"Right." The three ran out of the shop and stood in front of the building, on the street. They could see Bear and Derek running as fast as they could towards them, followed by a massive horde of undead. There were walkers as far as Eric could see down the street.

Bear and Derek finally caught up to them, and stood in front of them. "No time to stick around, we've got to fuckin GO!" Bear said.

"Derek... what's that..." Amelia asked, pointing to his arm.

Eric looked where she was pointing, and Eric stared in disbelief.

Above the elbow on Derek's arm, he had 10 little square marks, shaped in a crooked oval. Blood was slowly seeping out of it, and the veins around it had become discolored and bulging.

Derek had been bit.

**Quick author note: sorry I haven't put up a chapter in damn near ages. I've just been distracted a lot from writing recently. I'm gonna try and be more consistent from here on out.**


End file.
